Capital punishment is punishment by death for committing a crime. Since the early 1800's, most executions have resulted from convictions for murder. The death penalty has also been imposed for such serious crimes as armed robbery, kidnapping, rape, and treason. Some people disagree about whether capital punishment is moral or is effective in discouraging crime.

In the late 1990's, 38 states of the United States had laws that allowed the death penalty. These laws were influenced by a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision. The court had banned the death penalty as it was then imposed. It ruled that "the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty" was cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the 8th and 14th amendments to the Constitution. But the court left open the possibility that the death penalty might be constitutional, if imposed for certain crimes and applied according to clear standards.

Capital punishment was widely used during the Middle Ages, especially for crimes against the state and church. In t

An important factor in the abolition movement was played out on June 24th, 2002 when hundreds of death-row prisoners’ sentences were thrown into doubt because of a Supreme Court ruling in Washington. The Supreme Court ruled that juries, not judges, must decide whether factors exist to warrant the death penalty in a case. The justices decided that allowing judges to determine death sentence factors violates defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial. This ruling reflected a day and age when flaws in the death-penalty system were being examined thoroughly. Opponents of capital punishment thrived at this opportunity to attack many other facets of the death penalty system.

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